Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that

Not all Martin Luther King Jr. — a viral 2011 conflation Jessica Dovey (opening line) & Martin Luther King Jr. (the rest) Dovey: American teacher, posted May 2011 · King: 1929–1968
Disputed In copyright

The distinctive opening sentence — “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy” — was written by Facebook user Jessica Dovey in May 2011 after Osama bin Laden’s death. She then quoted a genuine passage from King’s Strength to Love (1963) — “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate… Darkness cannot drive out darkness… Hate cannot drive out hate…” — with an opening quotation mark to mark it as his. That quotation mark was dropped as the post spread, and the whole thing was wrongly credited to King alone.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that” Opening line by Jessica Dovey (2011); the rest from Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (1963).

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Martin Luther King Jr.. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The genuine passage © the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Strength to Love, 1963); the opening sentence © Jessica Dovey (2011)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Martin Luther King Jr. — Baptist minister & civil-rights leader. Theme: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

A genuine King passage with a modern preface fused onto it

Popularly credited to
Martin Luther King Jr.
Actually
A conflation — Jessica Dovey (opening) + genuine MLK (the rest)
Genuine portion
Strength to Love, “Loving Your Enemies” (1963)
Opening line
Jessica Dovey, Facebook status, May 2011

[Jessica Dovey, 2011:] “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” [Genuine MLK, Strength to Love, 1963:] “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

In King’s published text the punctuation uses semicolons (“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that”); the popular meme swaps in colons. King’s original preface to the passage reads “Why should we love our enemies?” — not Dovey’s sentence about mourning.

Professor Buzzkill: the MLK “mourn the loss” quote explained

How we verified this

  • The genuine lines come from Martin Luther King Jr., “Loving Your Enemies,” ch. 5 of Strength to Love (Harper & Row, 1963), long a documented King sermon — confirmed by Snopes.
  • The opening sentence was written by Jessica Dovey, a 24-year-old Penn State graduate then teaching English in Japan, in a May 2011 Facebook status — per CBS News.
  • Her closing quotation mark separating her words from King’s was dropped as the post was shared after bin Laden’s death, fusing the two — documented by Snopes.
  • Goodreads now correctly files the opening sentence under Jessica Dovey’s name.
In copyright

Both halves are modern and under copyright: King’s Strength to Love was first published in 1963 (rights administered for the King Estate), and Jessica Dovey’s opening sentence is a 2011 Facebook post. Neither is public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

How half a Facebook post became ‘an MLK quote’

This is one of the internet’s best-documented misquotes — not a fabrication, but a conflation in which one person’s words were merged with King’s and credited entirely to him.

Jessica Dovey (not MLK) Wrongly credited

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy” was written by Jessica Dovey, a young American teacher, in a May 2011 Facebook status after Osama bin Laden’s death. It appears in none of King’s speeches or writings.

Martin Luther King Jr. (genuine) Correctly his

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate… Darkness cannot drive out darkness… Hate cannot drive out hate…” is authentic King, from Strength to Love (1963) — though popular versions swap his semicolons for colons.

A dropped quotation mark

Dovey wrote her own line, then an opening quotation mark before King’s passage. As the status was copied and re-shared, that mark disappeared, and the whole block was passed around as pure MLK — amplified by celebrity re-posts.

Verdict: a genuine King passage with a stranger’s sentence welded to the front. The famous opening line is Jessica Dovey’s, not King’s.

Context

A teachable moment about attribution

When U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011, celebratory crowds gathered outside the White House. Uneasy with the jubilation, Jessica Dovey — then teaching English in Japan — posted a Facebook status pairing her own measured reflection with a King passage about answering hate with love, carefully marking where her words ended and his began.

Within days the post had shed its punctuation and was circulating as a single MLK quotation, boosted by high-follower re-posts. It became a widely cited case study in how social media strips context, and in the internet’s habit of crediting anonymous good writing to famous names.

She wrote the first sentence herself — then honestly quoted King. The internet erased the seam.

Read the full story

The genuine King lines predate the sermon collection: “Loving Your Enemies” was preached in the late 1950s at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church before appearing in Strength to Love (1963).

Fact-checkers rate the full attribution ‘mixture’/‘misattributed’ rather than ‘false,’ precisely because most of the passage really is King.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Kindness Justice

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Snopes: ‘Do Not Rejoice in the Death of One’snopes.com

Fact-check tracing the opening line to Jessica Dovey and the dropped quotation mark.
Professor Buzzkill: MLK ‘mourn the loss’professorbuzzkill.com

Historian’s breakdown of which lines are genuine King (Strength to Love, 1963) and which are Dovey’s.
CBS News: Jessica Dovey and the MLK misquotecbsnews.com

Profile of Dovey and how her Facebook status went viral in May 2011.
Snopes: ‘Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness’snopes.com

Confirms the darkness/hate lines are authentic King, from Strength to Love (1963).
Africa Check: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness’ is Kingafricacheck.org

Independent verification of the genuine King portion and its 1963 source.
Goodreads: quote filed under Jessica Doveygoodreads.com

Correctly attributes the opening sentence to Dovey, not King.

The genuine author of the darkness/hate lines

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

1929–1968 · Baptist minister & civil-rights leader

Martin Luther King Jr. led the American civil-rights movement from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to his assassination in 1968. The genuine half of this passage — “Darkness cannot drive out darkness… Hate cannot drive out hate…” — comes from his sermon Loving Your Enemies, published as chapter 5 of Strength to Love (1963). The opening sentence about mourning, however, is not his: it was written by a private citizen, Jessica Dovey, in 2011.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Strength to Love (1963) + Jessica Dovey (2011)

Martin Luther King Jr., “Loving Your Enemies,” in Strength to Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), ch. 5 (the genuine passage); opening sentence written by Jessica Dovey, Facebook status, May 2011.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-mourn-the-loss-of-thousands-of-precious-lives-but-i-will

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